Carson Walks Out of Jail

I’ve said this many times and before I say anything else today, I’m going to say it again: The justice system that we have not only should be but in fact must be slanted towards the defendants. Gaining a conviction for the government – at any level – should be difficult and should require that the State have its ducks in a row and to prove its case against a defendant who has effective counsel before a jury.

Defense Lawyers are usually squirrelly and evasive, but that’s their job. DA’s on the other hand must be above question and transparent in everything they say and do. You may ask why, since so many of the dirtbags the Police work so hard to get off the street would then be the beneficiaries of rules that favor them instead of the State or the victims. It is simply because if the government can start slam dunking convictions, the protections that we all have against the government go out the window. If the State can violate the 4th Amendment because “we all know” he did it, why can’t it violate yours if it deems it necessary? If a defendants 6th or 8th Amendment rights are pushed aside in the name of “justice” because of the severity of the crime, what happens to your rights?

You may not like it. But “I don’t like that,” is not a Constitutional argument.

So, having said all of that again, let us turn to the elephant in the room around Stanislaus County and the release from jail of Frank Carson and his fellow defendants in the trial of the murder of Korey Kauffman.

I certainly have had my own experiences with Mr. Carson, and I found him woefully lacking in the truth department. He lied about not being on time when he was invited to appear on the show, blaming Producer Kevin. Even when confronted off air with the eMail he sent confirming, he still blamed others instead of apologizing and admitting that he was late. His long and loud protests over phone taps were shown to be factually incorrect, and as it turned out anyway were more in his own self-interest than any actual concern over potential violations of your 4th Amendment protections. Those are my opinions and you can read my history with him and my opinions of his personality HERE.

Now we learn that the DA’s office “could not confirm” that certain CD’s with audio recordings had been turned over to the defense as required under the rules of discovery. In principle, this would be a critical error, as the Prosecution would not be allowed to use these recordings as evidence under normal circumstances (the Defense would have to make one hell of an error to get them introduced) since they had not been turned over as discovery. The bigger question is HOW THE HELL CAN THE DA’s OFFICE NOT KNOW whether they have turned them over or not?

In point of fact, I have to assume (and yes, I know what that means) that “cannot confirm” is code for “we didn’t,” without coming out in a statement and saying we screwed up in a way that not even a first year law student or a casual viewer of “My Cousin Vinny” would screw up. So given that for all practical purposes the Stanislaus County DA’s office – as far as we know – failed to turn over critical discovery in the biggest murder case since Scott Peterson, what can we conclude? How is it possible to make this error “accidentally?”

Look, I certainly have my issues with the DA, Birgit Fladager. I like her, she’s a nice person. A couple of years ago I disagreed with the time being wasted to paper Judges who made it “harder” for her office to get convictions. I outright oppose the papering of Judges. If a Judge breaks the rules, then impeach them. Otherwise the whole point – as I said then and I say now – is that it’s supposed to be hard. Suck it up, buttercup. If your case isn’t strong enough to withstand a few Constitutional rights, it’s not strong enough to waste the taxpayers money and the Courts time. So something is obviously seriously wrong in the DA’s office.

Does that mean that Frank Carson would have been a better choice a couple of years ago? Hell no.

He is a damn good defense attorney. He’s no Perry Mason, but he does a good job getting people who are probably guilty off by using the system as designed and constructed. I said it before, if I am accused of crime, he’s the guy I want as my lawyer. But as a District Attorney? Nope, not a chance in hell.

Why not? Because of his clear and obvious involvement in the Kaufmann Murder case. Someone who wants to be DA has a moral responsibility to be upfront and helpful in gaining justice in the murder of a human being. Whether he pulled the trigger or not, whether he was there when it happened or not, it is abundantly clear that he knows more than he is letting on. Someone who seeks the public trust cannot be someone who seeks to hide the truth in the death of a human being.

It’s possible the Fladager and her team intentionally hid discovery. Many people believe that. I don’t, but it’s also clear that somehow they completely f**ked this case up. If they even had a strong enough case to begin with. But two wrongs aren’t a right. Saying that Fladager must be out as the DA is not the same as saying that Carson should be in as the DA.

Carson is not qualified or capable of being the DA. Fladager is proving that something somewhere in her management style and/or leadership is failing as the DA. Stanislaus County needs and deserves better.

How many times does Birgit get to ‘forget’ to turn over discovery before it is obvious that it’s intentional? Remember the last time it was exculpatory evidence she ‘forgot’ to turn over to the defense. Maybe you should forgive Carson for being less than forthcoming about being late for your show.